SC - period cordial referances

[Mark Harris]

Mercedes asked for period documentation sources for cordials. Pardon
me but this is a little long.

The following is taken from this file in the BEVERAGES section of
Stefan's Florilegium.
cordials-msg      (65K) 10/15/97    Period cordials and liqueurs. SCA creations.

My files can be found at:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/rialto.html

These are just those mentions of period referances that I could find
in a quick scan of the file. Please check the file itself for more
details.

Stefan li Rous
RSVE60 at email.sps.mot.com (Yes, THIS is my new email address)
====================

L.C. Arano,  1976.  The Midieval Health Handbook - Tacuinum Sanitatis.
        ISBN: 0-8076-0808-4,  ND3399.I15 A5513

"The Queen's Closet Opened: being incomparable secrets in physick, chyrurgery, 
preserving, candying, and cookery, &c. which were presented to the Queen by 
the most experienc'd persons of the times,  many whereof were had in esteem 
when she pleased to descend to private recreations."  (which is on microfilm 
at UF) covers a number of restorative cordials and aquae.   The tract itself 
was in its tenth edition in 1698, fifth edition dated in the 1650s.   The 
"Queen" referred to is Elizabeth Regina herself,  though the first edition 
surely postdates her reign. 
- -------

In the fifth collection in _Curye on Inglysch_, which Hieatt calls "Goud
Kokery", there is a 14th C recipe for distilling aqua vite from the lees of
strong wine, which seems to produce something that would appear to be a
heavily spiced (and probably rather weak, given the methods described)
brandy.  So some form of such distilling is unmistakably period.
- -------

when writing an essay on 16th century science a couple years ago,
I ran across a citation from M. Boas _The Scientific Renaissance_. On
page 161, she makes reference to a certain Michael von Shrick who wrote
a book on distilling liquors in 1478 and suggested the use of such
liquors as brandy for medicinal purposes. It is a slender leg to stand on,
- --------

Anyone interested in a period answer to the question might want to look at
the description of how to make arrack in the (16th century, Moghul) _Ain i
Akbari_. Arrack, like rum, is a distilled liquor made from sugar cane. I
don't believe they are the same thing, but I expect the process is at least
similar.
- ------

Arnold de Vila Nova, a 13th Century alchemist, wrote of aqua vitae and
its restorative properties and also of the medicinal properties of various flavored alcohols. Legal documents dating to 1411 mention the distillation of  wine into brandy in the Armagnac region of France. Das Buch zu Destilliern by Hieronymus Braunsweig was printed in 1519. This book, as its title explains, is a book on distillation.
- ----

_The Secretes of the Reverende Maister Alexis of Piemount_
                               ANNO 1558
Reprinted in 1975 by Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Ltd., Amsterdam
                           ISBN 90 221 0707 8
- ----------

Hello!  I have a chapter on documented cordials and other distilled
beverages in my book "A Sip Through Time".  Two good late-period sources I
found are:

Hess, Karen, ed.  Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, and Booke of
Sweetmeats:  being a Family Manuscript, curiously copied by an unknown Hand
sometime in the seventeenth century, which was in her Keeping from 1749,
the time of her Marriage to Daniel Custis, to 1799, at which time she gave
it to Eleanor Parke Custis, her grandaughter, on the occasion of her
Marriage to Lawrence Lewis.  Columbia Univ. Press.  New York, 1981.  The
recipes contained in the MS. are dated 1550 to 1625 by the editor.  The MS.
contains many recipes for wines, mead, cordials, etc.

and

Plat, Sir Hugh.  Delightes for Ladies, To adorne their Persons, Tables,
Closets, and Distillatories:  with Beavties, Banqvets, Perfumes & Waters
Printed by Humfrey Lownes.  London, 1609.

There is also a mention in Gerard's Herball (Gerard, John.  The Herball or
Generall Historie of Plants.  London, 1597.  Rpt. Walter J. Johnson, Inc.
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Ltd.  Keizersgracht 526, Amsterdam, 1974.), p. 734:
- ------

	The earliest surviving legal reference to the matter can be found in 
the Exchequer Rolls of James IV of Scotland (1473-1513) which note 
that the King had his aqua vitae distilled from barley by a friar 
(_The Scots Cellar_ by F. Marian MacNeill, Edinburgh, MacDonald 
Printers, 1956).
	Henry VIII was the first monarch to officially require that the
product come only from licensed distilleries.   However it was not 
until 1661 that the first direct tax (4d. a gallon) was imposed.
(_An Encyclopedia of Drinks & Drinking_, by Frederick Martin,
Toronto, Coles Press, 1980)


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